Typical electronic systems may implement a number of shielding techniques to shield electronic circuitry located on a printed circuit board (PCB) for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and/or to shield the electronic circuitry to prevent electromagnetic interference (EMI). U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,051 is directed to a two-piece EMI/EMC shield that contains a PCB. This shield includes a conductive plastic first housing portion and a conductive second housing portion. The first housing portion includes integral projecting fingers and the second housing portion has an inner surface with walls, projecting therefrom, for substantially encompassing electronic components or a portion of the electronic components mounted to the PCB. The fingers of the first housing portion surround at least a portion of the electronic components mounted on the PCB and either contact or are sufficiently close to the second housing portion to provide capacitive coupling.
The shield includes an integrated gasket, which allegedly eliminates the need to separately manufacture and separately install a gasket, thus, allegedly reducing the cost of production of the shield and the time for assembly of the shield.
Other EMI/EMC shields have been proposed or manufactured that have included shield halves, which are mounted on either side of a PCB through selective soldering and/or through the use of surface mount clips, which retain the halves of the shield. Unfortunately, such shields typically require significant processing time, capital investment and are relatively expensive.
What is needed is a relatively low-cost, manufacturable two-piece electromagnetic shield.